US renews caution to terror danger

WASHINGTON - The State Department renewed on Tuesday its "Worldwide Caution" alerting US citizens to the continuing threat of "terrorist actions and violence" against Americans and US interests overseas.

The global alert, which has been renewed regularly since first being issued in December 1999, said the State Department "remains concerned about the continued threat of terrorist attacks, demonstrations and other violent actions against US citizens and interests overseas."

Current information "suggests that Al-Qaeda and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against US interests in multiple regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East," it said.

"These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics to include assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings and bombings."

US officials described the update as routine and unrelated to any new intelligence concerning possible plots against US nationals or interests.

"There is no new intelligence that I'm aware of that led to us issuing this," said State Department spokeswoman Leslie Phillips. "We are just renewing our warning."

The previous caution was issued in October and the updated version included references to "ongoing events in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East (that) have resulted in demonstrations and associated violence in several countries."

It also referred to "bomb attacks targeting buses carrying foreign workers in March 2007 and December 2006 in Algeria" to illustrate "how terrorists exploit vulnerabilities associated with soft targets."

Phillips said Wednesday's caution was aimed particularly to warn US travellers and residents overseas of the potential for terrorists to strike American targets and public transportation systems' worldwide.

Agence France-Presse